Talents to protect our future

by Anna Casotti

Spain ALLCA

Her professional experience is in fine art, design, and applied arts. Fascinated by screen printing, illustration, fashion, and textiles, Haizea Nájera founded the rug brand Allca to create unique pieces woven with plastic waste from rivers and seas. “My work is highly intersectional. Every day I strive to find new ways to tie together different aspects of my ever-chang ing, expanding experience. I’m always ready for new creative challenges.” NeraEra calls the Allca brand a blank canvas for customization and collaboration to create small, refined collections that mix art and design. Sustainable textile works made in the name of conscious design. “Now more than ever, design must improve society and the environment, so this project started with that premise.” www.allcarugs.com

The new design on display at the Salone Satellite space of the Salone del Mobile is all about sustainable fabrics, material experimentation, cultural icons, and traditional inspiration. Milan is honoring designers under 35, manual skill, and shapes that translate local heritage into ultra-contemporary pieces. It is a celebration of conscious design that perfectly balances technology and craft, form and function, analog and digital, aesthetics and ethics; a creative process that is reimagining the future.

Finland

ANTREI HARTIKAINEN

As a master cabinetmaker and designer, he takes a sculptural approach by turning his preferred material of wood into artworks that combine elegance, sensuality, lightness, and craftsmanship, blurring the lines between functional object and artistic artifact. “I try to create unique, practical, well-made products and pieces to show wood’s versatility.” His work has been exhibited in many solo and group shows. www.antreihartikainen.fi

Singapore KARYN LIM

Her multidisciplinary studio specializes in material experimentation to create contemporary products. Working with brands and artisans, she designs everything from home decor and furnishings to clothing, fragrances, and accessories. “Design improves everyday life by transforming common materials and techniques into objects of beauty.” Her trademark sculptural, lightweight pieces include copper-wire objects and vessels hand-woven using the crochet technique. www.karynlim.com

Japan AIOI

With an environmental design degree from Tokyo’s Tama Art University, Yugo Fukasawa opened his studio aioi in 2018 to focus on product and interior design for stores, restaurants, offices, and showrooms. His philosophy involves an attention to detail regarding the founding concepts of creative practice: function, material, structure, and aesthetics. The details become functional once assembled into form. www.aioi-design.jp

Switzerland LAURE GREMION

With a degree from ECAL in Lausanne where she opened her studio in 2017, her playful design vision is evident in the sinuous forms and structures of her objects and furnishings. “I’m captivated by contact with the material and exploring different solutions with specialized artisans.” From outdoor products to lighting, to contemporary decor, each piece perfectly blends aesthetics, functionality, and sustainability, as well as a touch of whimsy. www.lauregremion.ch

Germany FELIX ANGERMEYER

With a B.A. from the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen, he founded his design studio in Cologne in 2015 and specializes in new industrial-design and furnishing solutions for start-ups, companies, and agencies. Believing that form, function, and aesthetics must remain in perfect balance, his underlying philosophy is tied to sustainability and harmonious integration and dialogue between products and context. His studio uses the latest technology to create refined, poetic objects and furnishings. “Some design objects attract you at first glance. With sophisticated materials and slender proportions that favor functionality, the whole appears coherent, strong, and essential. This is what makes design so appealing and is the goal of my creative process.” www.felixangermeyer.com

Italy STUDIO WA+CH

“We are a collaborative studio with an inspiring vision. Our creative process blends observation, experience, materials, technology, and beauty.” Based in Milan, WA+CH was founded in 2017 by two Taiwanese designers, Wei Chih Chen and Fuhua Wang. Guided by a poetic vision, they take observation as their inspiration to create timeless, minimalist items.

www.waplusch.com

Belgium MARIANNE DE COCK

With degrees in interior design from the Luca School of Arts in Ghent and furniture design from the Thomas More University in Mechelen, she began her professional career at Atelier Ternier, known in Belgium for the production of prototypes for architects and designers. Marianne has had a true passion for wood since taking a carpentry course in high school and is especially intrigued by laminate. Her studio creates sinuous shapes with this material, fashioning tables, stools, and customizable totemic floor lamps. “Surface modeling adds unusual visual depth to home decor.” The furniture and light sculp tures are highly contemporary, with unexpected outlines and curved shapes carved into the material. “I make everything by hand; each piece has its own identity. Everything is about speed and mass market these days, but I want to keep all that outside my production process.” www.mariannedecock.com

Mexico COLECCIÓN ESTUDIO

Based in Mexico City and Querétaro, the studio was founded by three Mexican designers – Andrés Cacho, Daniel Martínez, and Manuel López – who explore the intersections between art, craft, and design. Viewing Mexico’s rich heritage through a modern lens, they design and hand-make locally inspired creations in their own workshop. The painstakingly crafted sculptural objects have an iconic aesthetic and connect to living spaces on an emotional level.

www.coleccionestudio.com

France ALEXANDRE DELASALLE

After studying product design at the’École Boulle in Paris, he got a communications degree from the Eindhoven Design Academy in Holland. As an artist-designer, he creates graphics, prints, products, and whimsical educational installations. “For me design is a playful way to investigate and discuss the social impact of current aesthetic standards. Various forms and materials can result, and the domes tic space is a fascinating platform for formal experimentation.” He is attracted by objects’ cultural value and considers 2-D formats like illustrations or product images as a starting point for the creative process. “Images can be approached more systemically and their production process is more understandable. You can define a framework precisely and expand it, which doesn’t mean the product has to follow a strict ‘graphic design.’ Most formal graphic vocabulary stimulates the senses indirectly and is exciting to reuse in designs or installations.” www.alexandredelasalle.com

Germany STUDIO.MCE

After earning a B.A. and an M.A. in product design from the University of the Arts Berlin, Merlin C. Everding opened studio.mce in Berlin in 2019 and moved to Essen in 2022. His studio offers creative direction, lighting design, furnishings, interiors, and decor, including unique made-to-order pieces. Each creation synthesizes design history, functionality, innovative technology, and the digital world, with a focus on human habits and good design. In 2021, he won the One&Twenty World’s Finest Design Talents Award. www.studiomce.de

Denmark

ZARA ADLER

“My creative process deals with paradoxes that can become spectacular objects, establishing connections and breathing in the light and atmosphere around them. My installations and products form dynamic patterns that constantly change and interact with their context.” With architecture degrees from Spain and Denmark, Adler uses analog and digital manufacturing methods to transform abandoned objects like plastics from the ocean or locally collected building materials into tactile, chromatic design pieces.

www.zaraadler.com